Activity — Sketch That Flow

Format for early lectures (01–04) and the recursion lecture (17) · 7 minutes.

1. Project a short problem statement with no numbers in it (e.g. "decide whether a purchased bundle is cheaper than its parts").
2. Students sketch a flowchart in 4 minutes using only: start/end, decision diamonds, input/output boxes, arrows. No code, no pseudocode — the constraint is the point.
3. Swap sketches; the reviewer finds one path where the arrows disagree with the words. 2 minutes.
4. Instructor projects a clean version; class traces one input through it.

Why it works. Students who hide behind half-remembered syntax are forced to expose their control flow. It is also the quickest diagnostic for the classic "decision diamond with no exit" mistake.

Pitfall. Cap the problem at one loop and two decisions. Anything more and the sketches become art criticism instead of logic review.